Sci-fi's been a bright spot in Tom Cruise's genre-hopping career. That is, until now. The thrilling "Minority Report" from 2002 ranks not only among his best films, but as one of the greatest sci-fi films ever. And while "War of the Worlds," the 2005 remake in which Cruise reteamed with "Report" director Steven Spielberg, had issues, especially the ending, it nevertheless emerged as a decent renovation of the H.G. Wells classic.

But in "Oblivion," sci-fi lets Cruise down.

Conceived by "Tron" director Joseph Kosinski from his graphic novel, "Oblivion" suffers from what could be called the hottie complex. It looks sleek and sexy on the outside, but there's precious little substance on the inside. The special effects are first-rate, but its dystopian plot is not.

Set in a post-apocalyptic 2077, "Oblivion" is about the realization by one worker bee (Cruise) that life is not at all what it seems, and that the girl (Olga Kurylenko of "To the Wonder") invading his dreams holds shattering significance. Plot twists are involved, so I don't want to reveal too much, but it's safe to say that when developments play out, they're hardly knock-your-socks-off revelatory in the way screenwriters Karl Gajdusek and Michael DeBruyn deem them to be.

The first half of "Oblivion" holds up best as we meet a two-team crew -- Jack (Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) -- stuck on an Earth devastated by an alien showdown. If you've seen "Tron," you know Kosinski prefers gizmos over characters, and he introduces us to some uber-cool contraptions that would get even James Bond shaken and stirred. My favorite is the helicopter hybrid Jack flies -- wish you could buy it on Amazon.

The mix of gee-whiz gadgetry and the day-to-day routineness of Jack and Victoria's lives is interesting enough, but the film is too glacially paced for it to work. The two share a lot, including the same boss -- a vapidly smiling Sally (Melissa Leo in a small role that I wish were bigger). They also share the same bed and the same pool (Cruise has a lot of Taylor Lautner-like gratuitous shirtless scenes). We drop in on them as their stint overseeing an assignment that sucks the marrow from Earth's natural resources is entering its final phase.

But the promise built up in the beginning self-destructs right about the time Jack does a stopover at his own secret spot on Earth and when Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ("Game of Thrones") enter the scene as survivors. I can't reveal how this influences the plot, but in the end, "Oblivion" struggles to come up with something profound to say. Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" befell a similar fate.

While "Oblivion" is more enjoyable, it still can't compare to a more fully realized sci-fi mind tripper like last year's "Looper," a film that worked because it balanced the gizmos with the human drama. "Oblivion" does a fine job on the technology side, but the emotional part rings as hollow as a deserted vessel drifting through space.